So I was in Kiev for the Champions League Final and from a Liverpool perspective, things did not go according to plan! Tactical damaging of Liverpool’s star player, sublime football from a Welshman and some world class goalkeeping ensured that the vast majority of the traveling fans in Kiev were a tadge disappointed (I would estimate a 2/3 – 1/3 split in the reds favour).

I tried to obtain a ticket but unfortunately it proved to elusive: I thought I had found success at the 11 hour when I received a tweet from some random guy saying he had one for sale. Now an appeal had gone out on ‘forces Radio BFBS’ with Casey & Jay in an attempt to secure me a ticket, so when this guy got in touch I thought the appeal had worked..his next message was “his mate is in Kiev with 2 tickets, and if I would like to do a bank transfer of £70 into his account, he will get his mate to come find me and give me the ticket’…..now this didn’t so much set alarm bells ringing but more something akin to a cartoon where a character opens a little box and a massive pair of hands with a bell and hammer come out and start battering it. Needless to say my cash stayed with me, I never got a ticket and after writing on his twitter account what a fraud he was, I got some nice threatening tweets telling me how he was going to hurt me ‘real bad’.

Just before I blocked him off my account I did see him advertising World Cup Tickets for £150…..if this guy had a brain anywhere as big as his neck he could make billions!

So I watched the game in the fan park and despite all the Liverpool fans about, I’m not convinced that any of them could have pointed to Liverpool on a map. That I suppose is what having a multinational fan base is all about, but this also meant that they did not understand my sarcastic piss taking when they lost! Spoil sports. I’d had a good couple of days enjoying the atmosphere but was keeping my serious partying head for the more important game which happened Monday, when Coventry City were promoted out of League 2 after beating Exeter 3-1 at Wembley.

I watched the game in an Irish bar in the centre of the city and I was joined by 3 Irish lads who were remnants of the “red invasion”. Now I did say that I would be drinking a lot during the World Cup and having a really good time but my god, I was soooo sloshed I literally couldn’t walk. I have recollections of falling over every 5 steps at the end of the night but apart from that I have no idea how I got back to my digs. Someone must have hit reset though, as I woke up the next morning with a mouth like a yak drivers glove and a broken bed spring digging into my back. Not the ideal way to travel safely around the world but, hey, I’ve been a Coventry fan since birth and reasons to celebrate only come every 30 years or so, so you have to make sure you get your monies worth.

I’m Visiting Chernobyl on Friday, where a Nuclear reactor had a bigger meltdown that a 15 year old girl who’s just been dumped and I’m then heading to Russia Monday evening….. I’m really quite looking forward to it!